JI elects Siraj as new chief

LAHORE: Sirajul Haq, senior minister in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, has been elected as the ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan, for the next five-year term, 2014 to 2019. The JI election commission, headed by Abdul Hafeez Ahmad, and its members naib ameers Rashid Nasim, Amirul Azim, Dr Muhammad Kamal, Bilal Qudrat Butt, Nazir Ahmad Janjua and Azhar Iqbal Hasan made the announcement after the final counting at Mansoora on Sunday. Abdul Hafeez Ahmad said that the JI had a total of 31,301 members across the country, while the election commission had issued 30,759 ballot papers, out of which 25,533 votes were polled, with an 85 percent turnout. Sirajul Haq belongs to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa city Dir. He was born on September 5, 1962 and did his MA in Islamic Education from the University of Punjab.